The Supreme Court’s decision on two cases challenging social media content moderation policies could expand protections for tech platforms under the First Amendment umbrella even if Congress were to dilute other protections, according to legal experts closely watching the issue.
Companies posting user content on the internet, like Meta Platforms Inc., enjoy a broad shield under Section 230 of a 1996 law that protects tech against liability for such content. Lawmakers who want such platforms to rein in harmful content have threatened to revoke that section and force stricter moderation of what gets uploaded.
But the court’s decision last week, which remanded the Florida and Texas cases to lower courts, opens the door to broader, more fundamental cover from the First Amendment, even as the ruling expressly avoids declaring social media posts to be free speech.
